P5 Livingston Tournament – Stuart

P5s Win Livingston Tournament

Stuart’s Squad Report

Today my team comprised the following players:Daniel, Fraser, Jake, Marc, Adam, Ruan, Ollie and Harry with guest appearances put in by Big Jack and Jamie when we suffered a couple of injuries towards the end of the day.

Our pool consisted of Linlithgow, Livingston, Dalziel, Kinross and Kirkcaldy. Falkirk were due to play but didn’t turn up.

First up for us was Livingston, which after some early tries we treated as a warm-up, giving Harry his first competitive outing in what was only his fourth day playing rugby. He quickly got that hang of the game and has already started making some excellent tackles. Most of the team ran in a try and we won the game comfortably lots to nil.

Our next game was against Kirkcaldy. This was a new opponent for us who had some quick players. However, our defence proved to be strong, especially with tackling and counter-rucking, and with some excellent running, supporting and passing we managed to beat them by 3 scores.

Next up was Dalziel, another new team for us, and who we felt were the team to beat in the group. They had three biggish players and one very good runner. Again, our defence didn’t let the big guys get into the game and we passed from side to side of the pitch, with some excellent off-loads and great supporting play. We ended up winners by four scores to two and received high praise from the Dalziel coaches who, while never liking to lose, said they loved watching our boys play and were satisfied to have lost to a really well-drilled team that played some of the best rugby they had seen!

Our last game in the pool was against Kinross. On a couple of occasions we left a gap in defence which was well exploited by the Kinross runner. Our wonderful cover tackles all over the pitch couldn’t prevent them from taking the game, which they won 3-2. We felt that we wouldn’t progress to the final as Kinross had won all their games except a draw with Dalziel. However, in the last game Kirkcaldy played out of their skin against Kinross and ended up beating them 4-2, which meant we were through to the final.

In the final we played the winners of the second pool, Edinburgh Accies. This was a hard game against a really well-drilled side that tackled very well and were strong in the ruck. However, our determination and team-spirit really showed through, with everyone defending to the last. In attack we ran the ball wide, made strong runs through the opposition and off-loaded brilliantly resulting in us running out 4-2 winners. The boys were exhausted at the end but were delighted with the win.

Today was a testament to teamwork. Everyone worked for each other, whether it be supporting runners, offloading to team mates, getting back to make tackles or winning rucks. The rugby played today was a joy to watch and the boys were worthy winners. Well done everyone!